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Saturday, August 16, 2014

Attention Deficit or Attention Excess?

My son just returned from a 500+ mile canoe trip which ended
north of the Arctic Circle.He talks about his concept of time and how
the experience completely altered it.This 45 day trip occurred out of “time”.It exists as a whole; separate and without any connection to this life
he’s just returned to.

I am reading the series of Carlos Castaneda books.In them, he refers to remembering his
“lessons” which occurred not here, but in a place he refers to as his “second
attention”.You may call it another
dimension or beyond the veil.He too,
mentions how when the memories come, they are not recalled in a linear
fashion.They occur as a single unit, as
if happening all at once.The memory
brings with it immediate presence – the feelings, sounds, tastes and
sensations.It is as if it is happening
right now.

“Time” is of this “dimension”.When life is reduced to simply living it,
time is perhaps not necessary as a form of measurement.It has become here a severe task master.We run out of it, race to beat it; fight its
appearance on our bodies and in many ways feel run by its movement.It tells us when we can play, work, sleep and
eat.We feel cheated or guilty by taking
too much or too little of it.Yet it is
all illusion, measured by mechanical movements on a clock.

What else is controlling our lives?We travelled to the northern most part of the
United States
to retrieve our son after his adventure.Here we notice less visible control.Construction crews working on roads with perhaps a few orange cones to
alert oncoming drivers.This, in sharp
contrast to the Chicago area where red lights and speed limits are either
“photo enforced” or “monitored by aircraft”.

People smile and look you in the eyes up here.They are the only eyes watching you.With the time illusion a bit relaxed, you
breathe a bit deeper and notice.

What is noticed is that our life is a construct of our
perceptions and can be altered significantly by our surroundings.In the Arctic
this summer, these six boys were masters of their every day.They were driven to decisions by weather,
gear and their intended goal – to reach the Arctic Ocean.It was to their advantage to notice the
details; in fact, it was necessary.They
let everything in.

What we found when meeting them again were vibrant, strong,
powerful, joyful beings.They positively
glowed.This is what sovereignty looks
like.These young men know that they can
handle life under any circumstance.They
were strangers in June and a single unit in August.

This is Oneness.It
happens naturally if allowed.If left to
our own devices, it is the way we’d choose to orchestrate our life.

The difference between allowing and resisting can be equated
to the difference between love and fear, or essence and ego.The energy it takes to define and then
resist, with a list full of reasons why it’s necessary to do so, is
enormous.Allowing is expansive while
resistance contracts, pulls in and hides.Allowing says “yes!” and produces growth while resisting halts further
inquiry.“Yes” is often much more fun
than “no”.

It can become habit to say either initially.Consciousness asks us to pay attention to our
answers before they come out of our mouths.Awareness means we take everything in.Refusing nothing, the world becomes a feast for our eyes and our
bodies.We see it all.Without holding an opinion about what has
merit and what does not, we explore.This is Attention Excess
rather than Attention Deficit.

The definition of deficit is “to fall short of the required
amount”.Required by whom and for
what?Required by a government system of
education to define and refine what is taken in and how.We are obedient students, never knowing what
it is we are missing while we are following instructions, (see video).

Since writing this post, I’ve seen the movie “Lucy”.In it, Scarlett Johanssen makes the statement
that without time to slow us down; we’d disappear into the everything (becoming
light itself).There is a vast
difference between merely introducing time as a construct within which to
experience life, and manipulating/controlling which experiences are had there.

Increased awareness/consciousness asks us to dance a new
dance with time.The old steps are no
longer taking us anywhere. It is not your job to follow or lead, but to allow
the dance to emerge. This is free style; it is synchronized beautifully.Let it go.What we’ll find is beyond our wildest imaginings.

We’ll get there as One. Let’s dance. We are the Ones we’ve
been waiting for.